A popular spring toy, sold under the well-known brand name SLINKY®, was disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,415,012 issued on Jan. 28, 1947 and later was described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,114,306 issued on Sep. 19, 1978. The play value of this toy is based on its many unique features, i.e. when holding one end of the toy in one hand and the other end in another hand the coils will unravel in the direction of the lower hand when one hand is raised or lowered. It behaves like a living creature, moving in one's hand. Additionally, the spring toy creates an interesting visual effect and generates attractive sound while it moves, further entertaining the user. It is also known on the market as a stress relief spring toy.
The spring toy was further developed by means of adding sound and lighting devices disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,000,991 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,482,071 or coating described in UK patent GB2167969A. An amusement coil spring with attached ball for producing an intriguing sound effect was disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,703,292. An adhesive toy jumping along a vertical surface was described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,461,220. This toy was based on coil spring with adhesive bodies connected to its both ends. A stress reliever using multiple concentrically positioned coil springs was disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,692,737.
Part of the spring toy's remarkable play value lies in its unique ability to move down a stairway of a specific size or incline due to gravity and inertia, converting its potential energy into kinetic energy. When a user mechanically starts the motion of the toy by advancing one of the top coils of the toy to the next lower level, the momentum of these top coils carries through to the remaining coils, causing them to follow the top coils in turn to the next lower level, and in the process appearing to “walk” down to the next lower level. At this lower level, the momentum of the coils, which are now on top, causes them to flip over and fall to the next further lower level, thus repeating the motion. This “walking” movement continues until the toy reaches the bottom of the stairway or incline, where it stops.
A method for manipulating a spring toy was disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,178,576 issued on Jan. 12, 1993 using a pair of 2-level platform devices kept in two hands to maintain the periodic step-walking motion of the spring toy from one hand to another.
A toy stairway was disclosed and possible stairway designs were discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,580,293 issued to Sestak et al. on Dec. 3, 1996. In that patent authors emphasized a need for design a toy stairway of specific size to make the game with “walking downstairs” spring toy more convenient and safe for children. Using stairway proposed in that invention, children can play inside any household instead of constructing a simulated stairway with a stack of books or similar objects or searching for a stairway of appropriate size and quality (e.g. uncarpeted) somewhere outside. The stairway also provides for children a safe way to play so that they do not need to climb the stairs each time they start a spring toy. The described stairway comprises 2 coilable and resilient side rails in confronting spaced relationship relative to each other, a plurality of L-shaped rigid steps disposed between the first and second side rails, and means for releasably connecting the plurality of steps to the first and second side rails. Advantage of the disclosed stairway is that it can be packaged in a small carton along with the spring toy for shipping, storage and merchandising benefits and that it can be relatively easy assembled.
There are several disadvantages though of such stairway design and construction: one of them is that it may not be easy to assemble the construction for small children due to specific type of connectors; another one is that its parts are of specific shape, size and design and therefore they cannot be used in other games or to build other constructions; the third one is that it is not possible to construct a few stairs without unfolding side rails to a full size.
There is also a general disadvantage of such kind of game, i.e. it is most likely an amusement game and it is not well determined from competitive point of view. Let's suppose, for instance, that the goal of the game is to reach the maximal number of stairs passed by a spring toy, which was started consequently by different players. It is hard to define the winner if the age and/or skills of players are similar, because there might be some points to argue. For example, if a spring toy, started by one player, went out of stairway at one of the stairs, hitting just its edge, or a spring toy may simply fall on a stair and roll or there might be many other unpredictable spring toy landings. In such cases it is not clear how to define the winner. To solve such problems a referee and/or well-determined rules are needed. This seems to be complicated and inconvenient for small children. So, there is a need for more accurate quantitative evaluation of players' skills.
The amusement effect of using the balls while playing with spring toy, held in the hands, was described in U.S. Pat. No. 2,854,786 issued to Sabo on Oct. 7, 1958. However, this patent did not include a mechanism for capturing and retaining the balls.
There were some prior art games and toys based on capturing of articles. U.S. Pat. No. 4,731,042 issued on Mar. 15, 1988 disclosed a toy for capturing a toy victim with a snare net, which is large enough when opened to fit over and around at least part of the victim. A catching toy was disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,099,381 and includes two semi-sphere containers—the upper one and the lower one of smaller size triggered and movable inside the upper one—to form a sphere chamber large enough to contain an object to be caught. The toy is operated with a string attached to the upper container. A flexible coiled lasso toy, disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,554,684 issued on Apr. 29, 2003, can wrap around different objects. In U.S. patent application 2002/0094753 A1 published on Jul. 18, 2002 there was disclosed a toy, a game and a method to play a game that consists in picking up an article or target by a resilient coil toy. One end of coil toy is held by a player, another end of coil toy and each article are provided with complementary attachment tacky or sticky surfaces for capturing purpose.
All capturing methods and devices described in the paragraph above are manually operated during the whole game action and are designed to trap/pick up only one object at a time. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,390,653 issued on Feb. 21, 1995 a two handed pistol-like toss and catch toy for catching multiple balls was disclosed. In the present invention the spring toy can capture multiple balls and it requires only to be started manually but further capturing process goes without manual control. In U.S. patent application 2002/0094753 published on Aug. 1, 2002 a toy and a method for washing a body of an individual were disclosed based on resilient coil with one or more bodies in the shape of identifiable objects attached to the coil.
There were several previous efforts in the art related to the proposed ball-trapping tool. However, none of these ball-trapping tools were employed for trapping balls with a spring toy. For example U.S. Pat. No. 6,050,625 issued on Apr. 18, 2000, discloses a table tennis ball retrieving and dispensing system. A tubular retriever can hold a column of balls and is deployed in a hand-held manner in a vertical orientation from a standing position. The retriever is fitted at its bottom end with a ball trap including (a) a flexible coaxial constriction ring defining an expandable entry opening that when lowered over a stray ball captures and retains it in the retriever tube, and (b) a flexible coaxial guidance flange extending outwardly and downwardly to provide initial capturing of a stray ball. Such a retriever captures a ball in 3 main steps: (1) manual positioning of the tube (2) initial capturing by guidance flange and (3) final trapping by coaxial constriction ring. The disadvantage of such ball retriever, if considered for use as a trapping tool in embodiments of the invention, is that its constriction ring needs to be positioned very precisely with respect to center of the ball. So it would significantly reduce the probability of ball capturing by a moving spring toy. That is why the 3 steps above are needed with manual control for successful ball capturing.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,407,242 discloses a cylindrical collection drum having a plurality of circumferential tines axially spaced apart by a dimension just less than the diameter of a tennis ball. At least one of the circumferential tines has an abrasive surface for engaging the tennis ball and urging it between an axially spaced-apart pair of the circumferential tines and into the collection drum. Another modification of tennis ball retriever was disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,412,839 and is based on tennis ball pushing through spaced bars in the base of the receptacle. U.S. Pat. No. 6,422,621 disclosed tennis ball retriever based on modified cylindrical collection drum having circular cylinder bases spaced from one another. The cylindrical collection drum has openings formed in a peripheral cylinder region such that balls can be pushed therethrough. The disadvantage of tennis ball retrievers described above with regard to the present invention is that they are manually operated for each ball capture by means of rolling a drum or moving a basket with a handle along the ground to collect the loose balls.
There were no prior efforts found in the art to mount a ball-trapping tool to a coil spring toy.
Thus, there is a need in the art, for a spring toy with a ball trapping tool and a game based on such a toy.